Pathways to Housing

By Karina Coleman

Pathways to Housing is an organization with an impressive success rate at placing the mentally ill in housing. Program manager Niel Harbus explains how the agency got started. “It was the early 80s,” he says. “We used to drive around in a couple of vans, six days a week and evaluate people in the streets, in the train stations, ferry terminals.”

Twenty years later Pathways to Housing finds shelter for thousands of mentally ill New Yorkers each year. Pathways clients suffer from a range of psychiatric disabilities. Niel Harbus and CEO Sam Tsemberis, along with a staff of 2500, help them find available housing and provide employment counseling.

Counselor Linda Pharris has worked at Pathways since it opened. “I had the pleasure of housing a gentleman who had been sleeping under the George Washington Bridge for 20 years,” she says. “He has now been with us for the last nine years and he also work with us.”

Mark Tyler, a former employment specialist at Pathways, recalls a woman he helped through her recovery. “Today she actually works for Metro-North,” says Tyler. “She has been doing very well. She stays in touch with me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Sometimes she emails me to let me know how she is doing.”

Pathways to Housing is located off 125th in Harlem. It is the longest running housing model in New York City. It has a high success rate of placing individuals in homes.

“After three years that people are housed in their own apartments, 85 percent of those people are still in their apartments, which is the highest success rate of any housing model that has been created,” says Harbus.

Pathways does more than place clients. It is there every step of the way, providing basic necessities like pots, pans, and cleaning products. Once settled into their home, clients are responsible for 30 percent of their income toward rent. Private donors pay the remainder, assisted by city, state, and federal agencies.

Pathway offices in Harlem house a resource center that has a studio for art and photography workshops. There is a kitchen for cooking classes and an open suite that hosts computer classes. The agency also offers GED and employment search classes

Ultimately, the company wants their clients to play a pivotal role in managing operations. Neil Harbus explains: “To make this a truly peer run program, where I’m kind of just in the background as a consultant and the day-to-day operation is run by a peer who is someone with their own mental health experiences.”